3rd, 4th Generations Still Help Operate An Old City Business

Third and fourth-generation family members continue to be involved in the operation of one of Allentown's oldest businesses, which was sold to a Lebanon-based company in 1973.

Located at 19th and Lawrence streets, the fertilizer plant formerly known as Robert A. Reichard, Inc., was founded in 1889 by the late George J. Reichard in a warehouse near 2nd and Union streets.

Today Neil Reichard, the founder's great-grandson, is division manager at theAllentown facility of Lebanon Chemical Co., where liquid fertilizer is manufactured, and plant manager Warren Reichard is a brother to former president Clarence A. Reichard.

Clarence Reichard, Neil's father, took over when his own father died in 1953. Clarence Reichard's brothers and sisters also were part owners at the time of sale.

The location of the plant - a hide curing and rendering operation at the time - was chosen in 1900 because it was away from the city then, Clarence Reichard says.

In addition to converting meat scraps into poultry and hog food, the plant also ground charcoal, oyster shells, grit and granite particles which were used as poultry food material, but sold separately from the actual feed.

Neil Reichard remembers shoveling oyster shells onto a dump truck while working summers at the plant as a teen-ager. Recalling his own youth, Clarence Reichard says, "We all took our stint carrying water."

Since the plant - one of 34 owned by Lebanon Chemical - was bought by the company, total sales have probably doubled, the division manager says. Meanwhile, the number of employees remained about the same. Lebanon Chemical grosses approximately $80 million dollars of business annually, Neil Reichard says.

He says they were able to increase business without taking on additional help because the rendering operation that was discontinued about 1971 required more employees than the fertilizer production. Then, too, the company ships the fertilizer out in larger loads than formerly because fewer individual farmers are coming in for small amounts.

Clarence Reichard says they made the decision to get out of the rendering business because they would have had to expand to continue it. Another factor was the disappearance from the local scene of small grocery stores and butcher shops andwith it the loss of a major source of hides and meat scraps.

He says people once routinely tossed their soup bones out in their yards and youngsters collected and sold these as "junk bone" to earn money. Another source was "prairie bone" shipped in from out west, but this, too, came to an end after World War II.

But, the former company president adds philosophically that any business which exists more than 50 years is bound to undergo some changes. "You either have to change or go into something else," he observes.

The hide operation, too, was once a large part of the Reichards' business, until the company experienced difficulty finding them in small lots. At one time, they purchased hides and by-products from Arbogast & Bastian.

Initially, the Reichards began manufacturing fertilizer as a means of using the bone meal that was one of their rendering products.

The company entered the liquid fertilizer field in 1957 when the industry was in its infancy. As more farmers began to see the need for fertilizer, the company began to grow more rapidly in this area, Neil Reichard says.

As before, the work is carried out in a series of wooden buildings and sheds scattered on the site. One, a 200-foot long building constructed of oak, can hold 6,000 tons of dry materials. Inside, oak strips divide the vast amount of space into bins used for storage of bulk fertilizer.

The company's busiest time of year is spring when 80 percent of its products are moved in a four-month period, Neil Reichard says. The company has a vat capable of mixing 22 tons of liquid fertilizer at one time.

From mid-March until mid-July, the company will output 400 tons of fertilizer a day. In its earlier years, when a considerable amount of manual labor was involved (even the bags were sewn shut by hand), the company produced about 100 tons daily.

Although Reichards has been involved with the company for close to a century, the dynasty may end with Neil's generation.

The division manager says it's unlikely that his three sons will follow in his footsteps and enter the formerly family-owned business.